Conestoga Capital Advisors, an asset management company, released its “SMid Cap Strategy” second-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The second quarter of 2024 may be regarded as a time of moderation. Economic indicators largely reflected slowing growth and easing inflation. Equity markets are also driven by moderation theme. Large-cap stocks, as measured by the S&P 500, rose 3.9% in the second quarter, however, small-cap stocks lagged again, with the Russell 2000 Index declining -3.3% and the Russell 2000 Growth Index declining -2.9%. The strategy declined -4.82% net-of-fees in the quarter compared to -4.22% return for the Russell 2500 Growth Index. Stock selection effects in the Health Care and Consumer Discretionary sectors were the primary drivers of underperformance and were partially offset by positive contributions in the Technology and Industrials sectors. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Conestoga Capital Advisors highlighted stocks like Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO) develops analytic, software, and digital decision-making technologies and services. The one-month return of Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO) was 8.99%, and its shares gained 104.91% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 15, 2024, Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO) stock closed at $1,733.79 per share with a market capitalization of $42.51 billion.
Conestoga Capital Advisors stated the following regarding Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO): FICO is a leader in predictive analytics and decision management software and is also the provider of FICO credit scores. Fiscal 2Q24 results came in ahead of consensus’ expectations, with upside in revenue and margins due to special pricing in the Scores business. This also drove a healthy non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) beat. While software revenue and bookings fell a bit short of expectations, platform growth continues at a solid pace and margins showed further signs of scaling higher. Importantly, FICO’s pricing power remains intact, and we believe this bodes well for future results.”
A hands-on approach: technicians working on data management products in an open lab space.
Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 45 hedge fund portfolios held Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO) at the end of the first quarter which was 49 in the previous quarter. In the third quarter of the fiscal year, Fair Isaac Corporation’s (NYSE:FICO) revenues increased by 12% to $448 million, while its GAAP net income decreased by 2% to $126 million, and GAAP earnings decreased by 1% to $5.05 per share. While we acknowledge the potential of Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO) and shared Baron FinTech Fund’s views on the company. In Q4 2023 investor letter Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO) was listed among the Conestoga Capital Advisors’ top contributors. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
